The Body at 70

It’s not so much that I turned 70 this spring, it’s that the main feature of my life for the last four months has been my body and it’s ailments.

First it was the hysterectomy; I made a great recovery from the surgery and got my energy back in half the time everyone told me it would take but even before that happened I was hit by Trigeminal neuralgia.

TN is mostly an old person’s disease so right away I took it as a terrible birthday present. In less than two months it was under control with a drug, but right about then my right knee became a problem. Now my day is scheduled around pill time.

Every visit to the mail box is that moment before opening a beautifully-wrapped present in anticipation of finding my handicap parking permit, and then the bitter letdown of nothing. I watch walkers, amazed how easily they do it, how casually–bend, swing, straighten, weight shifting automatically, balanced in the moments when only one leg is on the ground–as if it were not a complex mechanical operation. I scooter around the grocery store.